Caramelised Fennel and Wild Rice Salad
For a long time I ruled fennel out of my list of FODMAP friendly ingredients. My line of thought was ‘no onion, no leak, no celery....’ surely that meant no fennel. I nearly did a somersault when I found out that fennel was of the ‘yes, you can’ class of the low FODMAP list. So, I went straight to the shop to buy some beautiful fennel bulbs with this salad specifically in mind.
Have you tried wild rice before? It's so beautiful, it is this lovely deep purple colour and it tastes amazing. The other good news is it's actually lower in carbohydrates that white or brown rice. Excellent. When cooked it's soft but still has a nice crunchiness to it, making it perfect for salads. Wild rice can be expensive, but you can find it cheap if you look in the right places. Stay away from the supermarket, they'll charge you a small fortune, try larger scale health food/organic grocery stores.
I would suggest making the wild rice ahead of time if you can so you can let it sit and cool down while it's draining. That way you get the beautiful warmth and sweetness coming from the fennel contrasted against the freshness of the rest of the salad. This of course can be eaten when the fennel has cooled, but when it's warm it really adds another dimension.
For this salad I add a small amount of creamy goats cheese at the end, but you could easily omit it without great consequence for a dairy free option. If you can, try get smaller fennel bulbs as opposed to the large ones, I find them to be a little sweeter. Let me know what you think!
Ingredients
1 cup wild rice
2 small fennel bulbs
30g butter (this doesn't have to be exact)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/3 cup finely chopped dill
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
Zest of 1/2 lemon
2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Olive oil to drizzle
75g soft goats cheese (e.g., chèvre)
Method
Start of by boiling the wild rice until it's soft. Keep in mind that wild rice is not as soft as white rice, it's more similar to brown rice in that it still has a bit of a crunchy bite to it when cooked.
While the rice is cooking, prepare the fennel bulbs by removing the fronds (upper leafy part), cutting off a little of the root and removing any brown outer layers. Don't discard any of these. Keep the fennel fronds for garnishing and keep the stalks and outer layers to use in stocks. When your fennel is ready, cut in half and then into quarters making sure to cut vertically through the root so that all the layers remain intact. From your quarters you can then place one of the flat surfaces face down and cut thin slices, about half a centimetre thick.
Now that your fennel is sliced and ready you can start to caramelise it. In the ingredients list I said that the amount of butter didn't really matter. That's because I don't normally measure it out, I just put a small knob of butter in with a small glug of oil (maybe a tsp) and then let that foam up. When it begins to foam add a layer of fennel. I don't like to put too many in at a time because it can be easy to burn them or make them too dark if you're not being careful. When they start to turn golden brown, flip them over to brown the other side, remove from the pan and place on some paper towel. Do this until all the fennel slices are cooked, adding butter and oil when needed.
Once all the fennel bulbs have been seared, add a little more butter, the sugar and the fennel seeds to the pan. Fry for around 30 seconds and then return all the fennel into the pan to caramelise. I try not to stir these too much so that they don't fall apart, but roll the pan around a little to make sure all the fennel is coated (around 1-2 minutes). Remove from the heat and set aside.
While the fennel is cooling slightly, take your wild rice and mix it with the dill, parsley, lemon rind, oil, lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Try this mixture to make sure the taste is right. You want to have a big punch of fresh herbs and just a hint of lemon. Then, add the fennel and stir through gently. Try again to make sure you've added enough salt. Place in a beautiful serving bowl and top with the creamy goats cheese if using.